Fear of a brown-skinned America taints country

An innocent Cheerios commercial featuring an interracial couple and their daughter recently generated such a strong backlash on YouTube that the comments section had to be shut down. Some hard-core haters said they found the commercial "disgusting," and that it made them "sick to their stomach." Others expressed shock and dismay that a black father hadn't abandoned his family.

Why so much outrage over a biracial Cheerios ad? Maybe these self-appointed ethnic purists aren't aware that a biracial president lives in the White House. Or that all humans are descended from Africans. Maybe they don't understand that spewing xenophobic venom on YouTube will do nothing to reverse birth trends in this country.

If anyone thinks the Cheerios commercial is a "brainwashing" plot by advertisers with an aversion to traditional family values or that the media is secretly trying to cram a liberal agenda down the public's throat, they are in deep denial. Of the 2,096,000 marriages in the US in 2010, 275,500 were interracial. 8.4 percent of all current U.S. marriages are mixed-race, up from 3.2 percent in 1980. Biracial is becoming the new face of America.

Despite this, people refuse to accept that we are a multicultural society. They choose to live a life of fear instead of expanding their experiences and learning about others different than themselves. They consider America to be a UFC octagon of sorts where diverse cultures are forced to battle tooth and nail for jobs and services. They believe that words like multiculturalism and diversity are nothing more the politically correct terms for the cultural genocide of Europeans and code words for anti-white, anti-male, anti-western ideology.

Nothing could be further from the truth. This country contains people of all assorted colors and beliefs living in harmony. From 2000 to 2010, the number of Americans who consider themselves multiracial grew faster than those who self-identify as a single race, with the largest gains coming in the once racially segregated South and among those who identify as both white and black.

The United States is moving faster than ever toward a "minority majority." The new "us" is no longer white, black, Asian, or Hispanic. It's all of those and more. Perhaps the most eye-opening demographic is this: As white America ages, it will be relying more and more on hardworking, tax-paying nonwhites to build a prosperous economy and continue to fund programs like Social Security and Medicare.

Kind of ironic, isn't it?

Mixed-race people will always be a part of the fabric of America. Mass migration has made our communities more culturally diverse than ever. Bigoted comments like those found on the Cheerios YouTube page are the dying screams of an ancient beast in its death throes. Racists are fighting a losing battle. Their numbers are dwindling. That's why they are so angry. Multiculturalism is not just a world view, it is a reality. We either deal with the fact that we are a multiethnic society or shut ourselves off from our neighbors and live under a sad veil of intolerance and mistrust.

Personally, I can't wait until we're all mocha-colored. Race is nothing to be proud of. Just because your skin happens to be a certain color or you were born in a certain culture, that's no reason to feel superior. Expose your children to the diversity of the world. Teach them how to respect others and to become more tolerant of people they don't understand. Then you'll have something to feel proud about.

Race is becoming increasingly irrelevant in this country. Despite what the neo-Confederates, Nation of Islam, white nationalists, racist skinheads, black separatists, White Aryan Resistance, Hammerskin Nation, Imperial Klans of America, the New Black Panther Party or 9,904 other U.S. hate groups might say, a biracial kid eating Cheerios in a commercial is an accurate reflection of the modern American family. In another 500 years we will no longer be defined by our ethnicity. Racial bigotry will fade into the ether. It will probably never completely die out, but hopefully will become so marginalized it will no longer matter. When that day comes the world will truly be a better place.

After that I hope to see Cheerios commercials where the little girl has two mommies, two daddies and so on. Why not? Commercials are a reflection of our society. And in America, "family" means many things to many people.

Tim Martin resides in Fortuna and writes this column for the Times-Standard.